Rattle sound in front left tire area

[Usher]

you can inform me after the service? Thanks

They're doing the service tomorrow morning. I'll try to remember to post an update after driving it home, although it might have to wait until the following morning since it's the roads by my office that make the rattling most noticeable.

Incidentally, they gave me an invoice of $195 to do the work, which I'm assuming will change to free under warranty if they find the bolts were loose from the factory. I think this is because I diagnosed it myself and specifically said in the service request to just perform the work in the service bulletin. The car has not been back to the service center for them to diagnosis it.

 

[Sergio9320]

They're doing the service tomorrow morning. I'll try to remember to post an update after driving it home, although it might have to wait until the following morning since it's the roads by my office that make the rattling most noticeable.

Incidentally, they gave me an invoice of $195 to do the work, which I'm assuming will change to free under warranty if they find the bolts were loose from the factory. I think this is because I diagnosed it myself and specifically said in the service request to just perform the work in the service bulletin. The car has not been back to the service center for them to diagnosis it.

I looked online for the bulletin you mentioned, but couldn't find it. can you post it?

 

[Usher]

It's available on the Tesla Service Site website. You might need to "buy" a free one-year subscription to access it. I've attached the PDF file of the service bulletin.

 

[Usher]

you can inform me after the service? Thanks

I just got back from having the service done. The tech wasn't aware of the service bulletin, so I was glad I put the number right in the service request. We did a quick drive around a bumpy loop they have and he confirmed the issue and proceeded to perform the procedure in the bulletin. He confirmed the rattle was gone afterward and so did I when I picked up the car. He found that while the 4 bolts were not loose, they had not been torqued to spec, so no charge for getting the work done under warranty.

However, I had a 60 mile drive home and I took back roads. I noticed that about half-way home the noise started to come back just not as bad as before, along with a creak when turning the steering wheel at low speeds. I suspect that to really solve it, you'd probably want to put some force on the different subframe pieces while torquing the bolts (for similar reasons as why you want the car resting on the ground at normal ride height when torquing down suspension bolts), but that's not mentioned in the bulletin.

In any case, my main concern was that the noise might have been caused by something loose in the suspension, which is now ruled out by the fact that just torquing the subframe bolts at least temporarily eliminated the noise. I'll add the rattle to my short list of things with the car that I'll deal with myself when I get a little free time (the others are the rattle above the driver sunvisor and the driver side rear seat rattle).

 

[Usher]

I just got back from having the service done. The tech wasn't aware of the service bulletin, so I was glad I put the number right in the service request. We did a quick drive around a bumpy loop they have and he confirmed the issue and proceeded to perform the procedure in the bulletin. He confirmed the rattle was gone afterward and so did I when I picked up the car. He found that while the 4 bolts were not loose, they had not been torqued to spec, so no charge for getting the work done under warranty.

However, I had a 60 mile drive home and I took back roads. I noticed that about half-way home the noise started to come back just not as bad as before, along with a creak when turning the steering wheel at low speeds. I suspect that to really solve it, you'd probably want to put some force on the different subframe pieces while torquing the bolts (for similar reasons as why you want the car resting on the ground at normal ride height when torquing down suspension bolts), but that's not mentioned in the bulletin.

In any case, my main concern was that the noise might have been caused by something loose in the suspension, which is now ruled out by the fact that just torquing the subframe bolts at least temporarily eliminated the noise. I'll add the rattle to my short list of things with the car that I'll deal with myself when I get a little free time (the others are the rattle above the driver sunvisor and the driver side rear seat rattle).

Follow-up after a couple weeks of driving:
The creaking sound disappeared a couple days after the service and I'm pretty sure the clunk/rattling noise from the front of the car disappeared at the same time. I still need to finish getting rid of the rear seat rattle to be sure though since it could be masking the front rattle as they tended to both be triggered by the same road conditions.
I suspect the creaking noise I heard for a couple days following the service was the front subframe gradually shifting a little bit due to the forces on it and now that it has reached its happy place, the extra torque on the bolts is holding there and preventing the rattle.